This 360 camera recorded OVER 7 HOURS nonstop with NO GAPS! (Qoocam 3)

The new Qoocam 3 (reviewed here) can record over 7 hours nonstop in 5.7k 30fps with no gaps.  See below for details.

How long can you record with your 360 camera before it overheats?  That’s one of the things I wanted to find out in my review of the Qoocam 3.  Some 360 cameras will overheat before their battery runs out.  Better ones can run longer when connected to a USB power source, but all of them overheat at some point.  All except the Qoocam 3 apparently.

THE EXPERIMENT

In my review of the Qoocam 3, I recorded for 57 minutes nonstop at 5.7k 30fps before the battery ran out.  I wondered how long it could record if connected to a USB power source.  With a 128GB Micro SD card, the Qoocam 3 filled up the card, recording over 2 hours 15 minutes of video.  It only stopped because it ran out of space on the card, not because it overheated.

I thought about trying an even larger card to test its limits.  I used a 400GB Sandisk Extreme Micro SD card.   I was shocked to find that the Qoocam 3 kept recording until the entire card was filled.

HOW QOOCAM HANDLES LONG RECORDINGS

The footage consisted of 252 files.  That’s because Qoocam 3 records in 5 minute increments, and each 5.7k 30fps video recording has three files: a low resolution preview file plus the front lens video and the rear lens video.  Recording in 5 minute increments has advantages.  First, if anything happens to the camera that corrupts the video (such as a crash), the previously recorded files won’t be affected.  Second, if the micro SD card has a defect, you’ll have a better chance of being able to view at least some of the recorded files.

But won’t it be tedious to watch multiple files?  No because when you import the videos into its desktop app called Qoocam Studio, the app recognizes that the files were part of the same recording and gives you the option to merge them seamlessly and automatically.  In this case, the merged file turned out to be just over 7 hours…!

I’m left wondering how much Qoocam 3 could have recorded with an even larger Micro SD card (I don’t know yet what is the maximum card size it supports).

LONG VIDEOS WITHOUT GAPS

The other benefit of recording long videos with Qoocam 3 is that there are no gaps in the recording.  With Insta360, for example, it records in 30 minute increments, after which it has to write its cache into the memory card.  This results in a gap of several seconds every 30 minutes.

With Qoocam 3, there are no gaps.  Obviously I didn’t watch the entire 7 hour video just to check for gaps.  Instead I just spot checked a few parts that fell at a 5 minute interval.  I found no gaps at all.

CAVEAT: MICRO SD CARD MATTERS

The kind of Micro SD card you use has a huge impact on the Qoocam 3’s ability to record long videos.  I was only able to record 7 hours with the Sandisk Extreme 400GB.  I repeated the experiment with a Lexar 1TB Micro SD card that is rated V30, U3, A2, with speeds “up to 150 mpbs.”  But it only recorded 55 mins and 9 seconds even though it was plugged to a USB adapter.

WHERE TO BUY

Qoocam 3 is the most affordable 360 camera in its class and also features best in class low light performance and dynamic range, among other features.  It is available for $349 direct from Kandao.  Check out my review here.